Jennifer Saunders: Cancer Survivors Wear It Like A Badge

Jennifer Saunders has criticised cancer survivors who wear the disease "as a badge", because it is "a job you don't have to work for".

The comedian, 55, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2009 but kept her illness and treatment a secret until she was pictured at a party without her blonde wig.

The 'Absolutely Fabulous' star received the all-clear in 2010 but said she was attacked by some former sufferers for suggesting she was "free" from the disease after she revealed her regrown hair at a party.

The comedian and mother of three, who received chemotherapy and radiotherapy after doctors found a number of malignant lumps, said she never worried she would die from the disease because "they told me I wasn't going to".

Saunders, from Richmond in west London, has previously made light of her illness and joked about her ''lovely pert new bosoms'' when she spoke out about it for the first time.

But her husband Ade Edmondson has described difficulties endured by those with cancer and said the ordeal should not be referred to as a ''battle''.

'It's not a great three-part TV drama full of moments, it's a long grind, like a slow car crash that will last five years and then, hopefully, we'll get out,'' he said.